outside reading post #2

"Coming down the mountain, I was a changed woman. I may have worn the same sweet face, but now I was carrying not just my child but the dead boy as well.                         My stillborn of thirteen years ago. My murdered son of a few hours ago I cried all the way down the mountain. I looked out the spider-webbed window of that bullet ridden carat brothers, sisters, sons daughters, one and all my human family. Then I tried looking up at our father, but I couldn’t see His Face for the dark smoke hiding the tops of those mountains. I made my self pray so I wouldn’t cry. But my prayers sounded more like I was trying to pick a fight. ‘I am not going to sit back and watch my babies die, Lord, even if that’s was You in Your great wisdom decide'" (162).     

This passage comes from an intense part of the book. Patrica, one of the Mirabal sisters, was in a church on a retreat when the building was bombed. Patrica survies the bombing but when she is evacuating the building she sees a young man get killed which is very traumatizing for her. The authors voice is easily seen in this passage. The character Patrica is very connected to god and the author’s tone portrays her opinion of God. In the scene the author portrays Patrica sad and in need of comfort. When she looks around the car she sees people she knows but when she looks towards the heavens she can only see smoke. After that she is determined to try to stop people from dying. The authors voice is implying how this very religious woman would forsake her beliefs to end the violence and to end the dictatorship so peace can be restored. This is the primary voice of the book and is illustrated by the passage above.      

This passage is also interesting because of its differences with other parts of the book. Because the perspective is always changing the authors voice is expressed in different ways under different perspectives.  For example when it is Maria Teresa’s perspective there is much more structure that shows the authors opinions of the dictator Trujillo and young love. Basically the author uses the 4 characters to express what she thinks using the mechanism of voice. It is clear when reading the book that the author values intuition, freedom rebellion to an oppressor and being brave.     

Q:So Ms. Alvarez when you were writing your novel In Time Of The Butterflies why did you decide to have four different points of view instead of just one?

            A:Well the story is about the four Mirabal sisters and their fight for freedom so it only made sense that I include perspectives from all four of them. Also I decided to make it more interesting by making each perspective different in its own way. For example Maria Theresa’s part of the story is always told from her diary.

Q:So when I was reading your book I was increasingly frustrated by your use of names. They kept on changing because of weird titles; there were also references to Spanish. Why did you do that in your book?

            A:Well I am from the Dominican Republic so basically I am showing off my culture. One reason I did that is it makes people from the US know that the setting is foreign. Also when I came to America all American books had American references with no clues for any outsiders. I wanted to employ the same style in my writing.

Q:What would you say your general tone is for the book? And how do you display it?

            A:I would say that my general tone for the book is trying to impart the struggles associated with living under a vicious dictatorship. In general the protagonists express this with their secrecy, fortitude and bravery.

Q:The beginning of the story starts with Dede’ who is a old women telling her story to an American Woman why did you decide to start the story at the end after everything had happened instead of the beginning of the story?

         A:That is an interesting question. First of all I did not want the reader to get any false hopes. Because this is fiction I did not want to lead the reader on that it could have a happy ending. By starting with Dede’ it makes it clear that Patricia, Minerva and Maria Theresa are not going to make it which I think makes the story more interesting and seem less fictional. Another reason I did that was because the beginning is similar to how I started to write the book in the first place.